THE
MYTH
Perseus, the hero of Argos, fell in love with the beautiful
Andromeda, who was offered by her father, King Cepheus as appeasement
to a sea monster, Cetus, for her mother Cassiopea's insolence
to the sea nymphs. Perseus can only rescue her by first slaying
the Medusa, one of the Graeae, whom no one could look upon without
being turned to stone. Perseus slew the snakeheaded Medusa by
showing her her own reflection in a mirrored shield given to
him by Athena. He then petrified Cetus by forcing him to look
upon Medusa's head.

THE MATH
Gaston Julia (1892-1978)
Julia's publications with Pierre Fatou are masterpieces of classic
complex analysis, greatly admired by mathematicians but exceedingly
difficult to build upon. Their work on self-referential iteration
led directly to fractals.